Masonry Magazine April 1984 Page. 29
Masonry Highlights Temple Parenting Center in San Fernando Valley
The Stephen S. Wise Temple Parenting Center sits like a jewel in the sun atop an 18-acre mountaintop overlooking the beautiful San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, California. It is one of a seven-building complex serving more than 2,200 families.
Totaling 4,453 sq. ft., the bi-level facility consists of two large classrooms, a kindergym, and an office conference area. Each classroom is directly accessible to its own adjacent outdoor child play area.
The Parenting Center was designed to cater to young families with children from six weeks to 2 years, and is the first program of its kind in the United States that is located in a synagogue and totally committed to the support and education of the new family. Classes include pre-natal education, a complete kindergym program, Saturdays for father and child, and various seminars.
"Our major design objective for the building was to form a link or connecting element to the existing Nursery School Building to the west, allowing for extended use of each building," said Lawrence Robbins, project designer and executive vice president of the Van Nuys, Calif. architectural firm of Robbins & Bown, Inc. "The forms of the new design were the result of allowing the building to blend with the existing motif of the Nursery School, the topography, and to maximize the view of the mountains and ocean to the south."
Robbins said compatibility of materials throughout the complex was of utmost importance.
"Thus, we opted for Higgins fire-flashed common brick, concrete roof tile and clear all heart California redwood," he said. "These materials were repeated from the other Temple buildings to emphasize the continuity of the total environment."
Conscious of energy conservation, Robbins sited the building to take advantage of passive solar design principles and added deep overhangs and cantilevers to shield the facility from the hot southern California summer sun. The thermal mass of the masonry also allowed for the reduction of heating requirements during the winter season.
Masonry contractor was R. E. Williams & Sons, Inc., Torrance, Calif.
ATTENTION! SAFWAY SCAFFOLD OWNERS & USERS IMPORTANT PRODUCT INFORMATION ANNOUNCEMENT
SAFWAY has designed a new guard rail retention system for use on standard SAFWAY manufactured scaffolding. The new system, called a "G-Lock" (patent pending), is not interchangeable with existing guard rail posts. The purpose of this announcement is to urge all users of SAFWAY products to convert their existing guard rail retention systems to the G-Lock system.
The existing guard rail system, which utilizes a threaded stud and wing nut to hold the guard rail in place, is safe when the scaffolding is properly constructed and used. However, it has come to our attention that improper construction and misuse of the existing guard rail system has resulted in a number of accidents, some of which have caused severe injuries. The G-Lock system is designed to minimize such improper construction and misuse.
For this reason the new G-Lock has been incorporated into all SAFWAY inventory and newly manufactured SAFWAY equipment. In addition, we are offering to convert all other existing SAFWAY manufactured equipment to the G-Lock system at our expense.
We urge you to replace your existing SAFWAY guard rail system with the G-Lock system. You simply need to bring your SAFWAY guard rail posts to your SAFWAY dealer for a no cost modification or exchange for modified SAFWAY guard rail posts.
If you have any questions regarding this announcement, contact your SAFWAY dealer or Robert Freuden, Manager, Customer Service, Safway Steel Products, P.O. Box 1991, Milwaukee, WI 53201 (414) 258-2700.
Enough Said
A wife was complaining to her husband. "Our new neighbor must be offended at something I said or did. She hasn't been over for almost a week now."
"Well," said her husband, "when she does come over, be sure to find out what it was you said so we can try it on her again."